Tossing a bottle

Tossing a bottle

Today while walking to my home from my office, I purchased a bottle of orange
juice. I was a bit bored and started tossing it in the air (if throwing it 15cm
in the air can be called tossing :) ). As I reached a stretch of road without
people, I started tossing it higher, maybe a few meters in the air. I
felt happy doing this. However, on the next turn, I saw a couple of guys
talking on the sidewalk, I stopped tossing. I thought I would resume once I was
past these guys. The reason I stopped was very obvious, I didn’t want these guys
to watch me toss the bottle and fail to catch it. Then I started thinking, I
always used to say ‘Do not be afraid’. Back in the day, I even had a poster stuck on
my wall which read ‘Do not be afraid’. And here I was, afraid of what
two strangers would think if I dropped the bottle (which is such a trivial thing
but that’s not the point).

It is astounding how we are afraid to do simple
things even in complete anonymity. These guys really didn’t know me, and even if
I failed to catch the bottle, it had no real consequences, they were probably
not even looking or thinking about it.

Experimentation and fear

So, here I was afraid of experimenting with a trivial thing, inspite of all my
beleifs. Then it hit me, the more you fear, the lesser you experiment and the
lesser you experiment the lesser you grow. Experimentation takes courage.

The human mind is such a complex thing, and we can
only grow if we learn about our true selves instead of living in a state of
denial. So, experiment with gay abandon, don’t be afraid of the consequences. No
one is really paying attention to every little action you do. Even if they are
there are really no consequences most of the time.

Now, that I know my weakness, I hope to overcome it and be able to experiment a
little more regardless of the consequences(real or imaginary).

As they say, Knowing that you don’t know something is the most important stage
of learning. I have hopefully reached this stage, I can’t say for sure though,
there are many things which we say which we don’t fully comprehend. It is like
seeing an important detail which you missed while watching a movie the first
time. Wise words have layers of meaning hidden under them. Everytime you think
you have understood them completely, they show you more by uncovering
another layer.

For parents

If you don’t let your kids experiment and explore this world, you are limiting
their growth. It is your job to expose them to all the things in the world.
One of the huge problems in Indian education is that most of the kids don’t know
what they need or love till they graduate. There are many who don’t
know what they love even till they die. I am not talking about the kind of food
you like. I am talking about much bigger things. For instance, my sister who is
20 years old, has just found that she loves cooking. Think about it for a second,
she is an Indian girl, she has access to a kitchen, and it still took 20 years for her
to find that she loves cooking. Obviously it is because she hasn’t tried cooking before.

So, as parents it is your responsiblity to expose your children to as many things as
possible.

For the individuals

Explore, experiment, toss a frigging bottle. Do not be afraid.

P.S: By the way, I didn’t stop tossing the bottle till I reached my home :)